No. 18 Missouri baseball drops opener to Alabama 2-1

COLUMBIA, Mo. – No. 18 Mizzou Baseball dropped its series opener against Alabama, 2-1, Friday afternoon (April 6) at Taylor Stadium. Junior LF Zach Hanna had the lone RBI for the Tigers after a single to right field drove in sophomore CF Kameron Misner.

Mizzou sophomore LHP T.J. Sikkema took the loss, his second of the season, after allowing six hits over 6.0 innings. Alabama pushed both its runs across in the second inning after stringing together three consecutive singles.

TURNING POINT

A double in the second inning by Alabama’s Hunter Alexander started the game-winning two-run second inning for the Crimson Tide. Sam Praytor, Jett Manning and Kyle Kaufman added back-to-back-to-back two-out singles with Praytor and Kaufman each recording RBIs to put up the crooked number that eventually turned out to be the winning runs.

The Tigers answered in the fourth as Misner started the inning with a single and junior 1B Brian Sharp followed with another single. Hanna drove home Misner but that was all the Tigers could get. Mizzou threated with hits in each inning and 13 hits overall but Alabama answered, turning three double play in the game.

QUOTING MIZZOU

Head Coach Steve Bieser:
“When we put 13 hits together and just can’t score more than one run, that is frustrating. I think it was some of the approached we had when we had runners in scoring position were frustrating. It was a disappointing loss. A lot of times in the game, you don’t always win the game, but you do lose the game. That’s what we did today – find ways to lose.”

TOP TIGERS

Junior 1B Brian Sharp recorded his seventh multi-hit game this season, first since March 17 at LSU, with three hits on the day. Sharp now has four three-hit games this season which is second most on the team.
Junior LF Zach Hanna now has four hits in his last four games. Previously Hanna had four hits in his last 10 games for the Tigers.
Freshman DH Cade Bormet recorded his first career multi-hit game going 2-3 on the day with two singles.

Sophomore SS Chris Cornelius notched his fifth multi-hit game of the season with three singles. This was his first three hit game since February 21 at Miami.

NOTES

Despite the loss, Mizzou still leads the all-time series with Alabama, 6-5
Mizzou is now 5-3 on Fridays this season
Mizzou falls to 11-6 in three-game series this season.
The loss was just the second that the Tigers have suffered at Taylor Stadium this season. Mizzou is now 14-2 at home.
Mizzou falls to 5-5 in conference play this season.
After recording 12 hits, Mizzou has now tallied 12 or more hits in seven games this season. Friday’s loss was the Tigers first when having at least 12 hits.
Mizzou suffered their first loss in a one-run game, falling to 3-1 in such contests this season.
After the 2-1 defeat, Mizzou is now 15-1 when holding opponents under three runs.
Sophomore CF Kameron Misner collected his 40^th hit of the season with a single in the fourth inning. Misner had 60 last year. With a single in the eighth, Misner tallied his ninth multi-hit game of the season, tying Brett Bond for the team lead.
Junior 1B Brian Sharp posted his fourth multi-hit game, totaling three singles. It was his first multi-hit game since March 17^th at LSU.
Junior LF Zach Hanna knocked in the Tigers’ lone run on an RBI single in the fifth inning. It was Hanna’s third hit this week and he now has four hits in the last four games. Before that, Hanna only had four knocks over his last ten ballgames.
Freshman DH Cade Bormet had a pair of singles and recorded his first career multi-hit game
Sophomore SS Chris Cornelius recorded three singles giving him his first three-hit game since February 21 at Miami.
Sophomore SP T.J. Sikkema worked 6.0 innings and allowed two runs while striking out six. Sikkema has now lasted at least 6.0 innings in each of his three starts this season and has allowed three runs per start while averaging nearly six strikeouts.
After sitting down a pair on strikes, junior RP Jordan Gubelman now has 11 strikeouts in 7.2 innings of work during conference play this season.

UP NEXT

Mizzou and Alabama play game two of the series Saturday at 1 p.m.

— Mizzou Athletics —